Recycling old pc, erasing hard drive

Status
Not open for further replies.
Originally Posted By: Volvohead
I really don't think we're disagreeing about much here.


What I'm trying to say, is just use an erase software and that's it. Physically remove the PCB is worse than just using the erase software and then sell the drive on ebay.
 
Originally Posted By: pickled
I typically just put the hard drive in my drill press with a 3/8" bit or give it a little side to side action with my 40amp plasma cutter. No issues so far from using either one of these tactics. Yes I really do these things...
13.gif



I've been following half of this routine, namely the drill press with a 1/2 inch bit. Don't have a plasma cutter. Yet.
 
if the drive is still usable just run dariks boot and nuke.
if it is unusable/bad and contains data that must not be compromised then physical destruction is the way to go.
the last bad one a client sent to me for destruction spent a week in the coals in the bottom of a woodstove.
didnt find the platters and the aluminum case melted.
once the platters reach the curie point nobody will recover anything.
if you need to trash one really fast and it has glass platters like ibm/hitachi just spike it onto a hard surface so it lands flat.
unless its a tla that wants the data good luck and very deep pockets will be required to get it back.
i do data recovery and there are plenty of ways to get back so called unrecoverable data.
out of reach of your local trash digger or petty identity theft guy thankfully.
its not even worth it to those types to pay my consultation fee!
if someone is interested enough in your data for you to go beyond overwriting your drive you have much bigger problems!
pulling the pcb does nothing to stop someone like me.i have thousands of hdd pcba and as many versions of firmware.
even if i dont have the swap table/bad track map i will still get 99.99% back.the folks you want to thwart are going for the low hanging fruit only.
boot and nuke it.
then use it for a backup or spare.
 
Originally Posted By: Drew99GT
Take the drive out and smash it with a sledgehammer. If it were me, I'd take it to the shooting range!


That is what I do. Works everytime.
01.gif
 
Originally Posted By: PandaBear
Originally Posted By: Drew99GT
Take the drive out and smash it with a sledgehammer. If it were me, I'd take it to the shooting range!


You can still extract the data unless you demagnetize or melt the platter.

How about a hole through all the platters?
grin2.gif


.223, .357mag or .44mag pokes a hole everytime.
 
Originally Posted By: Bill in Utah
How about a hole through all the platters?
grin2.gif


.223, .357mag or .44mag pokes a hole everytime.



In theory (if you have that much money and time), you can use electron microscope to scan the raw data and extract/decode them back. You won't get the whole drive's worth of data, but maybe part of it.

Any small damage to the platter is good enough to usually deter ID thieves, but insufficient to the secret service or the military.
 
Originally Posted By: PandaBear

Any small damage to the platter is good enough to usually deter ID thieves, but insufficient to the secret service or the military.


I'll send you a cake with a quality file in it.
wink.gif
 
Originally Posted By: javacontour
Originally Posted By: moribundman
Originally Posted By: PandaBear
Yes for highly sensitive data that is worth recreating (i.e. defense related info, national secret, atomic bomb blue print, nuclear test simulation data).


Do you know how they destroy drives at Livermore Labs?
wink.gif



Don't they let former Chinese nationals take them home :)

Quote:

The laboratory has attracted negative publicity from a number of events. In 1999, Los Alamos scientist Wen Ho Lee was accused of 59 counts of mishandling classified information by downloading nuclear secrets—"weapons codes" used for computer simulations of nuclear weapons tests—to data tapes and removing them from the lab. After ten months in jail, Lee pled guilty to a single count and the other 58 were dismissed with an apology from U.S. District Judge James Parker for his incarceration.[1] Lee was suspected for a time of having shared U.S. nuclear secrets with China, but investigations found this not to be true.[2][dubious – discuss] In 2000, two computer hard drives containing classified data were announced to have gone missing from a secure area within the laboratory, but were later found behind a photocopier; in 2003, the laboratory's director John Browne, and deputy director, resigned following accusations that they had improperly dismissed two whistleblowers who had alleged widespread theft at the lab. The year 2000 brought additional hardship for the laboratory in the form of the Cerro Grande Fire, a severe forest fire that destroyed several buildings (and employees' homes) and forced the laboratory to close for several days.

In July 2004, an inventory of classified weapons data revealed that four hard disk drives were missing: two of the drives were subsequently found to have been improperly moved to a different building, but another two remained unaccounted for. In response, director Peter Nanos shut down large parts of the laboratory and publicly rebuked scientists working there for a lax attitude to security procedures. In the laboratory's August 2004 newsletter he wrote, "This willful flouting of the rules must stop, and I don't care how many people I have to fire to make it stop". Nanos is also quoted as saying, "If I have to restart the laboratory with 10 people, I will". However, a report released in January 2005 found that the drives were in fact an artifact of an inconsistent inventory system: the report concludes that 12 barcodes were issued to a group of disk drives that needed only 10, but the two surplus barcodes nevertheless appeared on a master list. Thus, auditors wrongly concluded that two disks were missing. The report states, "The allegedly missing disks never existed and no compromise of classified material has occurred". This incident is widely reported as contributing to continuing distrust of management at the lab. In May 2005, Nanos stepped down as director.


Quoted from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Alamos_National_Laboratory

And yes, I realize the quote is about Los Alamos, they probably have similar policies, LOL.


Please don't lump[ this poor Chinese man in with the category of theft.
I have followed his case from the beginning..he was held in prison for 10 months...without charges...fully against the constitution.. the prosecution said that to give evidence of what he had stolen ..was to giv away national secrets..the judge was convinced for a while..but eventually told the prosecution to bring him evidence or they would be thrown in jail ...that was why he was release and apologized to ..all he did was take hid laptop home to do some work on it..they accused him of spying.
Your Patriot Act at work ...10 months no charges ...nice:(

BTW he recieved 1.6 million $$$ for the way he was treated
 
Originally Posted By: deepsquat

Please don't lump[ this poor Chinese man in with the category of theft.
I have followed his case from the beginning..he was held in prison for 10 months...without charges...fully against the constitution.. the prosecution said that to give evidence of what he had stolen ..was to giv away national secrets..the judge was convinced for a while..but eventually told the prosecution to bring him evidence or they would be thrown in jail ...that was why he was release and apologized to ..all he did was take hid laptop home to do some work on it..they accused him of spying.
Your Patriot Act at work ...10 months no charges ...nice:(

BTW he recieved 1.6 million $$$ for the way he was treated


Agree with that. The problem is everyone was doing it in that lab, and when the audit didn't pass they have to find a scapegoat, and since he was from China, and have a nickname of weirdo in the lab, why not just throw him in for that. The security breach was violated from top to bottom in the department, to a point of almost impossible to see who was the spy, or whether there was even a spy at all.
 
Last edited:
Pull the PCB and then drill some holes through the drive. Unless you've got some serious a$$holes going through your stuff, your data will be safely destroyed that way. This is the way I dispose of my drives. I love using my DeWalt...
 
Originally Posted By: deepsquat
Originally Posted By: javacontour
Originally Posted By: moribundman
Originally Posted By: PandaBear
Yes for highly sensitive data that is worth recreating (i.e. defense related info, national secret, atomic bomb blue print, nuclear test simulation data).


Do you know how they destroy drives at Livermore Labs?
wink.gif



Don't they let former Chinese nationals take them home :)

Quote:

The laboratory has attracted negative publicity from a number of events. In 1999, Los Alamos scientist Wen Ho Lee was accused of 59 counts of mishandling classified information by downloading nuclear secrets—"weapons codes" used for computer simulations of nuclear weapons tests—to data tapes and removing them from the lab. After ten months in jail, Lee pled guilty to a single count and the other 58 were dismissed with an apology from U.S. District Judge James Parker for his incarceration.[1] Lee was suspected for a time of having shared U.S. nuclear secrets with China, but investigations found this not to be true.[2][dubious – discuss] In 2000, two computer hard drives containing classified data were announced to have gone missing from a secure area within the laboratory, but were later found behind a photocopier; in 2003, the laboratory's director John Browne, and deputy director, resigned following accusations that they had improperly dismissed two whistleblowers who had alleged widespread theft at the lab. The year 2000 brought additional hardship for the laboratory in the form of the Cerro Grande Fire, a severe forest fire that destroyed several buildings (and employees' homes) and forced the laboratory to close for several days.

In July 2004, an inventory of classified weapons data revealed that four hard disk drives were missing: two of the drives were subsequently found to have been improperly moved to a different building, but another two remained unaccounted for. In response, director Peter Nanos shut down large parts of the laboratory and publicly rebuked scientists working there for a lax attitude to security procedures. In the laboratory's August 2004 newsletter he wrote, "This willful flouting of the rules must stop, and I don't care how many people I have to fire to make it stop". Nanos is also quoted as saying, "If I have to restart the laboratory with 10 people, I will". However, a report released in January 2005 found that the drives were in fact an artifact of an inconsistent inventory system: the report concludes that 12 barcodes were issued to a group of disk drives that needed only 10, but the two surplus barcodes nevertheless appeared on a master list. Thus, auditors wrongly concluded that two disks were missing. The report states, "The allegedly missing disks never existed and no compromise of classified material has occurred". This incident is widely reported as contributing to continuing distrust of management at the lab. In May 2005, Nanos stepped down as director.


Quoted from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Alamos_National_Laboratory

And yes, I realize the quote is about Los Alamos, they probably have similar policies, LOL.


Please don't lump[ this poor Chinese man in with the category of theft.
I have followed his case from the beginning..he was held in prison for 10 months...without charges...fully against the constitution.. the prosecution said that to give evidence of what he had stolen ..was to giv away national secrets..the judge was convinced for a while..but eventually told the prosecution to bring him evidence or they would be thrown in jail ...that was why he was release and apologized to ..all he did was take hid laptop home to do some work on it..they accused him of spying.
Your Patriot Act at work ...10 months no charges ...nice:(

BTW he recieved 1.6 million $$$ for the way he was treated


My comment really wasn't focused on him being Chinese, but the security that allows anyone, including someone who happens to be a Chinese national to take a drive home.
 
what does anyone think about copying a hard drive over and then reinstalling windows? basically, the hard drive has been written over twice. is that enough to "erase"?
 
Originally Posted By: Cutehumor
what does anyone think about copying a hard drive over and then reinstalling windows? basically, the hard drive has been written over twice. is that enough to "erase"?


No, I've recovered data from drives with this done many times.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top Bottom